Today is the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary–not the conception of Jesus, but of Mary herself, conceived just as we all are but without original sin.
\”The feast of our Lady\’s Immaculate Conception is the promise and the earnest of Christmas Day; our salvation is already in the bud. As the first green shoot heralds the approach of spring, in a world that is frost-bound and seems dead, so in a world of great sinfulness and of utter despair that spotless conception heralds the restoration of man\’s innocence. As the shoot gives unfailing promise of the flower which is to spring from it, the Immaculate Conception gives unfailing promise of the Virgin Birth.\” –Msgr. Ronald A. Knox
Dominican Life on Lotus Lane 